Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Buffalo Looked To Stay Hot, Arias Led New Hampshire, and Dunedin Tried Some Late Game Heroics

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (July 2-3)

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons
Series vs St. Paul Saints (Minnesota Twins): 2-2
Season Record: 40-43

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats 
Series vs Reading Fightin Phils (Philadelphia Phillies): 2-2
Season Record: 38-35

High-A Vancouver Canadians
Series vs Eugene Emeralds (San Francisco Giants): 2-2
Season Record: 32-45

Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays
Series vs Jupiter Hammerheads (Miami Marlins): 3-1
Season Record: 35-41

FCL Blue Jays
Week Record: 1-3
Season Record: 29-16

DSL Blue Jays Blue
Week Record: 1-2
Season Record: 10-14

DSL Blue Jays Red
Week Record: 3-1
Season Record: 10-13

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

• Season Record: 41-44
• Series vs St. Paul Saints (Minnesota Twins)

July 2: Buffalo sent CJ Van Eyk to the mound on Thursday against the St. Paul Saints. He did more than what was expected, going five innings and completely shutting down the Saints bats. St. Paul only managed to get three hits off of Van Eyk and didn't even draw a walk. It was mostly contact pitching for Van Eyk, though, as he struck out just three batters in the game. It was a completely different story for Buffalo and their hitters. They continued a recent string of putting up huge run totals on the scoreboard, all backed by a ton of hits and home runs. Four Buffalo hitters had multiple hits, and two ended the game with four hits: Charles McAdoo and Eloy Jiménez. The home runs came from Ismael Munguia and Davis Schneider. Munguia had a solo home run to open up the game, while Schneider's came in the top of the ninth, with a runner on. Willie MacIver also had himself a big game, having two two-RBI doubles and a sacrifice fly, leading the Bisons with five RBI. The only two Buffalo bats without a hit were Je'Von Ward and Josh Rivera, but both did reach base on walks. To top it off, every batter in the lineup scored at least one run, five scored two, and Munguia paced everyone by scoring three times. Buffalo blew out St. Paul, 16-3.

July 3: Friday was the second straight game that Buffalo sent a pitch-to-contact style player to the mound against St. Paul. Grant Rogers had the task of keeping Buffalo's offense close enough to strike and pull out a win, and he did his job. He scattered eight hits, gave up three runs, and struck out five. With Buffalo down 3-0 in the seventh inning, their bats finally decided to make an appearance in the game. Charles McAdoo opened up the half inning with a blast, a 106.8 mph, 435-foot solo home run. After a Willie MacIver double and a Davis Schneider walk, Eloy Jiménez shot a line drive to right field to score MacIver. C.J. Stubbs then ripped a double that forced a play at the plate, where Schneider was out on the play. St. Paul got one of the runs back in their half of the seventh, a solo home run by Matt Wallner off of Pat Gallagher. Je'von Ward would cut into the St. Paul lead in the ninth, with an RBI single that scored Stubbs. Unfortunately for Buffalo, it was all they could score in their last comeback attempt. The Bisons fell 4-3, in a game where their bats were far off from recent offensive explosions. 

Double-A New Hampshire

• Season Record: 40-37
• Series vs Reading Fightin Phils (Philadelphia Phillies)

July 2: In the Thursday game between New Hampshire and Reading, Austin Cates was on the mound for the Fisher Cats and had some early trouble. He allowed an RBI groundout in the second inning and then a three-run home run from Riley Tirotta in the third inning. In the fifth inning, Jorge Burgos and Hedbert Perez went back-to-back with home runs to get New Hampshire on the board. In the fifth though, Raider Tello hit a grand slam for the Fightin Phils, followed by a home run from Kehden Hettiger in the seventh inning. Nick Goodwin would answer with a home run of his own in the ninth, but it wasn't enough, as New Hampshire lost 10-4. 

July 3: In Friday's matchup between New Hampshire and Reading, the Fisher Cats dominated beginning to end with their bats. In the second inning, Carter Cunningham started things with an RBI double to bring in one run. The next inning, Jorge Burgos hit his fifth Double-A home run to bring the lead to three. In the fourth inning, Nick Goodwin and Victor Arias added RBI doubles. By the sixth inning, Reading had hit two home runs and brought the lead down to one. In the eighth inning though, Victor Arias cleared the bases with a three-run double, which was followed by an Eddie Micheletti Jr. home run in the ninth inning. New Hampshire would add three more runs and win this one easily, 12-4. 

High-A Vancouver 

• Season Record: 33-46
• Series vs Eugene Emeralds (San Francisco Giants)

July 2: Postponed

July 3, Game 1: Max Scherzer returned to the mound on rehab assignment at Nat Bailey Stadium, and the future Hall of Famer struck out three batters over three innings of work. Where he faced some trouble in the third inning, giving up two runs and the lead. Landen Maroudis pitched in relief and had a solid outing for the first time in a while, as the righty went four innings, giving up only one run in the fourth on a sac fly. Jake Casey couldn’t be denied, as he hit one of his two extra-base hits of the game with a solo homer to bring the score within one. Sam Shaw evened it up with a sac fly in the fifth inning, and in the bottom of the sixth inning, Eric Snow has shown to be the opposite of his last name and has been red hot, with his fifth double as a Canadian to score two runs, which eventually were the winning runs. Maroudis earned his first win after losing seven games so far this season, and hopefully this is a turnaround for him. 

July 3, Game 2: The second game of the doubleheader did not go as well for the Canadians, as immediately in the first inning Holden Wilkerson gave up a solo shot to Gavin Kilen. Wilkerson was unable to get out of the second inning as he allowed a few baserunners into a three-run homer that knocked him out of the game. Jonathan Todd replaced him and wasn’t much better, as he gave up his own three-run homer in the third inning, putting the Canadians down eight to nothing very early. The offense could not touch Jacob Bresnahan, as he only gave up two hits and two walks all game. Jack Nedrow saved the pen, as he only gave up one run in four innings of work, as he’s finally settling down in Vancouver. Bresnahan pitched until the ninth inning before the Canadians were done away by Matt Dunaway in a 9-0 loss. 

Single-A Dunedin

• Season Record: 36-42
• Series vs Jupiter Hammerheads (Miami Marlins)

July 2: The Italian lefty from Rovigo took the bump, and Giacomo Taschin pitched three innings of two-run baseball, but he struggled with his command, walking four batters despite striking out five batters. The Jays were in striking distance after a Dariel Ramon RBI-single, but Luis Victorino gave back that run in the fourth inning, and in the fifth inning, he allowed three more runs, which made it a six-run deficit. That didn’t prevent the D-Jays from roaring back, as Raimundo De Los Santos pinch-hit for the rehabbing Arjun Nimmala and drove in two runners with a double in the seventh. Austin Smith and Diego Dominguez both pitched scoreless innings to prevent the lead from getting out of hand. In the ninth inning, the Jays loaded the bases, and Giaconino Lasaracina hit a sac fly, then Jean Joseph hit a liner to bring it within two. A wild pitch allowed another run to score, but unfortunately for the Jays, Jake Cook flew out to center to stop the comeback attempt in the top of the ninth. 

July 3: Troy Guthrie had another quality start, which was his fourth of the season. JoJo Parker once again drove in a run in the first inning for an early lead. Guthrie allowed a pair of homers in the fourth inning, putting the D-Jays down two, but the inning after, a bunt single from Austin Smith led to a throwing error from the third baseman Edgardo De Leon, allowing Owen Gregg to score. Parker had his second RBI of the game to even it up in the fifth. The bullpens of both teams kept it close, with Angel Obando striking out six batters in three no-hit innings, only allowing a walk, taking the game to extra innings. Adam Hackenberg grounded into a double play in the top of the 10th, but a wild pitch allowed Dariel Ramon to score, and Franly Urena came in and shut the door with two strikeouts in the 10th for his third save of the season. 

FCL Blue Jays

• Season Record: 29-16

July 2: In the Thursday game between the FCL Blue Jays and FCL Phillies, the game came down to the fourth inning. May Viera hit a sacrifice fly for the Blue Jays in the top of the inning. In the bottom of the inning, though, things went south. Miguel Pantoja, who had a good game, allowed a triple, single, and a walk before coming out of the game. He pitched 3.1 innings, gave up four hits, three runs (two scoring after he left), walked three, and struck out five. He used a good mix of pitches, including a promising fastball between 92 and 94 mph, with mostly 19 inches of induced vertical break, which was up to 22 inches at one point. He had a good curveball and slider that generated most of the whiffs in the game. The Phillies would go on to score six in the fourth inning and add a seventh run in the fifth. Denzer Guzman had the Blue Jays' biggest hit in the seventh inning, a solo home run to right-center. The Blue Jays would lose this one 7-2. 

July 3: Things didn't go well on Friday for the FCL Blue Jays either. They faced off against the FCL Tigers and were down big early. Cristian Rodriguez started the scoring with an RBI single for the Tigers, which was followed by a two-run home run, an RBI double, and another RBI double. The Tigers added a run in the second inning as well. The Blue Jays scored their first run on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt in the fifth inning. Renyel Campos hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut the deficit to five. The game ended in the bottom of the seventh due to some bad weather. 

DSL Blue Jays Blue

• Season Record: 10-14

July 2: Tomoya Kinjo was on the mound for BJB, and he continued to struggle in the DSL. He threw 2.2 innings, gave up four runs, and had no control while he walked six. Thankfully for BJB, their bats were dialed in, even if it was just singles. BJB racked up nine singles and seven walks, leading to 12 runs. Sebastian Casanova led the way with three hits, stealing a base, and scoring two runs. Cristopher Polanco was also a menace; he had a single, two stolen bases, and scored three runs. BJB won big 12-6. 

July 3: Sebastian Casanova had another really good game on Friday; he tallied three more hits, his second three-hit game in a row. BJB started the scoring in the second, getting RBI singles from Juarlin Soto and Fabian Gonzalez. Cristopher Polanco added a two-RBI single before the inning was over, giving BJB a 4-0 lead. After scoring two runs on a wild pitch in the fourth, BJB's pitching failed them, giving up six runs down the stretch. BJB would drop this one 7-6. 

DSL Blue Jays Red

• Season Record: 10-13

July 2: Postponed

July 3: Elaineiker Coronado and Luis Nunez led the charge for BJR. Coronado was perfect at the plate, going 3-3, with a solo home run and an RBI single. Nunez was a standout as well. He tallied two singles and a walk, while also being a menace on the base paths, stealing three bags and scoring two runs. Rodrigo Ramirez had a good game on the mound, pitching 2.2 innings and striking out five without giving up a run. BJR won the game 4-2. 

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